Is It In The Spirit......Frank?

Man.....

I warned of this...

yeesh...

Ok..
clear my head..

I am not going to over judge the Coked-up Raymond Chandler finds Metropolitan Theology soaked monologue that is contained in this heartfelt, well intentioned, piece of crap that is passing for the first Spirit trailer..

Shit.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Ok.... Get my bearings...

I love The Spirit. I'm not going to gush, but let's say I've read around 93% of Will Eisner's work. He is the first great complete artist (art and script) of the comic book art form. Frank Miller knew Eisner. He loved him. I believe that Frank Miller wants to do right by him. I want him to as well. Other than Watchmen, there is no "comic to film" property that I would rather see succeed.

But I have to ask, "who was this guy talking in this trailer?"

"That was The Spirit?"

"The Spirit is running and jumping across roof tops, while engaging in metaphoric soliloquy?"

(not going to complain about the hokey cg jumping, because I believe that's on purpose)

Denny Colt......The Spirit, is a "man's man." He's a classic good guy hero; charming, good natured, lovable, punch drunk, and extremely hard to kill. This is not a man who thinks about the nature of heroes and totems as it relates to himself and his city!!


Where did this "My City" crap come from? He's not Batman! Since when is The Spirit, a dark vigilante who dances upon the city skyline like DareDevil in a dark duster? Where is the brutish, but lovable guy in the blue suit? Where is the gloved underdog, who seemed more a mix between Cary Grant and Li'l Abner?

Oh yeah... I forgot... this is really Frank Miller's The Spirit isn't it?


Both men describe a gritty urban city, but Eisner paints a city filled with the entire spectrum of emotions; humor, horror, beauty, lust, innocence, silliness. Miller is black and white, unable to grasp the subtle human quality of Eisner's work. Where Eisner sees a depth, Miller see extremes. Eisner heightens the impact of violence by adding goofiness, seduction, moments of extreme action. Miller is like a coked up Raymond Chandler, every moment is booze, broads, bazookas, blood, boobs, butts and bomb blasts.

Miller's violence is porn, it's fantastic porn, but it's about anger, empowerment, control and domination, it's always about the guy kicking ass.


Eisner's violence is about the pain felt, the victimization, even when The Spirit is kicking ass, he's barely getting it done against overwhelming odds.


By the way, for those who are in the know, The Spirit's most deadly enemy, The Octopus, who has never, ever, ever, been shown in any form other than in a deep disguise and normally, is only recognizable by his oddly three striped gloves..

Well, here he is...
and again...

and...

Shit.

Not sure this isn't Constantine all over again...

Man of Independance

I love the founding fathers. With all their faults, they were well rounded intellects that had the vision to create a modern world and change government forever. But one fella is always left out of the pack. A gruff, brutally honest and ethically noble man who, with advisement from the woman who was his best friend, closest confidant and adored wife, would drive this nation to independence. Unlike many societies after revolution, he would help it cling to it's founding ideals.

HE IS JOHN ADAMS and he is unlikable, vain and without charisma, but his deep love of ethical ideas and his acknowledgment that people needed laws to keep order and not fall into a rationalized violent quagmire, makes him, perhaps the most fascinating founding father of them all. The only founding father who never owned slaves (this was on principal, not opportunity) John Adams was the architect of it all.

HBO and Tom Hanks have brought us a 7 part series starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney as John and Abigail Adams. I think it's remarkable and very, very real.

Take a look...

Snake-Eyes!!

So, like Transformers, could be good, could be bad. I thought Transformers was a "dilute the robots with people" Micheal Bay disappointment. Where was the Optimus Prime?

Now we have our first look at everyone's favorite Joe. What can I say? In Transformers, the people took the spotlight and the robots stood in the background. Since the Joes are people, let's hope this will be a more character driven Lara Hana inspired, return to the original comic book, we all know and love.

Here's Snake-Eyes!!

Fuck You HeMan!

The Name Is Stark, Tony Stark

Updated!! Here's another one!!

I found this beauty Here!

This takes me back to the old James Bond and Star Wars movie posters.
A few bloggers are calling it "Cliché."
They're almost correct.
Its "Gloriously Cliché!"

It was a time when a movie poster wasn't about being different or creative or strange.

It was a time when a poster could say:

"Hey yuze guyz!
Ya want ta see a movee?
Dis one's got a smart looking serious, determined hero guy ready ta fight,
a big, bad, bald guy who's evil (so watch out!),
planes flying,
explosions,
some big robotos,
a buddy
and
a redheaded goil!"

Okay, maybe that's more of what Popeye might say, but you get the idea.

Popeye would, make a great movie reviewer.
I got nothing..

We Watches The Watchmen!

Here they are, like something stepping out of my indy fan boy dreams, there really is a movie and it's been shot and is going into post.

Here are some incredible promo shots just officially posted HERE!

The Watchmen are flesh and blood.
Let's gawk! (wiki in blue)
(don't forget to click for a bigger image!)


The Comedian/Edward Blake
(Jeffrey Dean Morgan)
A vigilante superhero who is commissioned by the U.S. government. Prior to Morgan's casting, producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin met with Ron Perlman to discuss portraying the Comedian. Morgan found the role challenging, explaining, "For some reason, in reading the novel, you don't hate this guy even though he does things that are unmentionable. My job is to kind of make that translate, so as a viewer you end up not making excuses to like him, but you don't hate him like you should for doing the things that he does."


Rorschach/Walter Kovacs
(Jackie Earle Haley)
A vigilante superhero who continues his vigilante activities after they are outlawed. He was transformed over time from a "soft" costumed hero into a killer who sees the world in black and white. Rorschach wears a mask with ink blots that morph to reflect his emotions: motion capture markers were put on the contours of Earle Haley's blank mask, for animators to create his ever-changing expressions. Small holes were made for him to see.


Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt
(Matthew Goode)A retired vigilante superhero who has since made his identity public. Adrian Veidt has been deemed the "smartest man in the world" by many, mainly the media. He has proven to be incredibly intelligent with his genius plan to help Earth towards utopia.

Nite Owl/Daniel Dreiberg
(Patrick Wilson)A retired vigilante superhero with technological experience, former partner to Rorschach. Dan Dreiberg relied more upon technical wizardry than toughness, which set him apart from his fellow costumed adventurers. Still, he has demonstrated more than adequate skills when defending himself. All of his gadgets and costumes are based on an owl theme. He uses an owl-shaped flying vehicle nicknamed "Archie" (Archimedes, after Merlin's owl), equipped with a variety of offensive and defensive devices.


Silk Spectre/Laurie Juspeczyk
(Malin Åkerman)A retired vigilante superhero. Åkerman described her character as the psychology and the emotion of the film due to being the only woman among the men. The actress worked out and trained to fight for her portrayal of the crimefighter. Sally "Jupiter" Juspeczyk (the first Silk Spectre) pushed her daughter into the "family business" of crimefighting. Laurie Juspeczyk never held much interest in becoming her mother's successor, but went along with Sally's wishes anyway."

SIGH... only a year away..

And if you're jonzing even more for some Watchmen goodies after that, calm down with this pre-production interview with director Zack Snyder in which he lays down his Watchmen philosophy..

Marvel on Ol' Walt's Path..

(Images from Empire Here!)

Marvel may have made a name for itself these past eight years by dominating the action movie market with the reinvention of the superhero film, but with the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk this Spring, Marvel will finally have the possibility of making some serious cash for itself. These movies Marvel has made with it's own funding, so the losses or gains will be all Marvel's. If Iron Man makes Spider-man money, Marvel could be the next Disney and Marvel seems very aware of this fact.

Iron Man isn't a throw away like Ghost Rider, DareDevil, Elecktra or The Fantastic Four. The cast is filled with Oscar winners (Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges), and a director (Jon Favreau) driven to breath the kind of real personalities and humor into Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes, Pepper Potts and Obediah Stane that Toby Maguire and Hugh Jackman created in Peter parker and Wolverine.

If that's not enough, how about a new Incredible Hulk movie, written and staring Edward Norton, William Hurt and Tim Roth? I've read a script review that got me pretty excited, for a real Abomination VS. Hulk type of action!

Marvel is connecting these two films to the same universe, Robert Downey Jr. "apparently" has a cameo in the Hulk movie and Samuel L. Jackson is "apparently" playing Nick Fury in both movies. With plans to make Thor (directed by Matthew Vaughn of Stardust and Layer Cake), Captain America (directed by Nick Cassavetes of Alpha Dog)and Antman (Directed by Edgar Wright of Shawn of the Dead) Iron Man director Jon Favreau has let it be known that Marvel has dangled the carrot of helming and Avengers movie in the near future.

So that's Marvel's plan.. build five big films, all with extremely talented actors and directors, then combine them into one giant tent pole film that would have Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton and whoever the other stars are working in the ultimate superhero team movie, under the command of... Samuel L. Jackson... Man that is the definition of synergy!!

And that doesn't mean that Marvel's past success is over. Hugh Jackman is going forward with a huge cast filled with unused or underused X-Men characters like Deadpool, Gambit, Beak, Sabretooth and Silver Fox among others in creating a prequel: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'm kind of iffy on this one, because I wanted to see the Claremont/Miller Wolverine story in Japan first, but you can't deny it will make a lot of money. Wolverine is now an American (Canadian) icon.

Comparably, Warner Bros./DC's management of Smallville, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Justice League, which are all happening in stand alone universes that require two different actors to play Superman, Batman and The Flash, looks as awkward as Micheal Jackson at the Playboy mansion. Maybe they should take a que from Marvel and build on success, with some kind of plan to integrate. Still, this is the big role of the dice for Marvel and the future is still a surprising opponent. I wish them good luck.